Kevin Bronson on October 17th, 2025

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New singles from the likes of Gold Star, Magdalena Bay, Mirrorball, Cannons, Avalon, Gal Musette, Auditorium and IAMEVE, plus album/EP cuts from new releases by Dear Boy, BEL, Madison Cunningham, Militarie Gun, VTB, Suzie True, Sudan Archives, Katzù Oso, Sherwyn and more: Buzz Bands LA’s Greatest Hits … This Week (Vol. 360) is packed. Take a long listen, right down to the Dollyrots’ cover song.

Find our past playlists, with liner notes, here.

Note: Anita Wills contributed to today’s roundup.

■ Dear Boy, “Now More Than Ever” — The lush, lovestruck melodicism of Dear Boy’s 2022 debut album “Forever” coalesces with gritty, ’90s-style guitars (writ large by Aron Kobayashi Ritch’s production) on the L.A. quartet’s sophomore full-length, “Celebrator,” out today. Rock anthems for those who like anthems: Start with “After All” (featuring Alithea Tuttle of Rocket) and then the Madchester-lite “Kelly Green.” Live Jan. 16 at Zebulon.

■ BEL, “Look It Up” — Friendly reminder that “Holy Grail,” the debut album from Isabel Whelan (dba BEL), is out today as well. Check out singles such as “Fresh Start” and “Party Tricks.” File under breezy, endearing indie-pop. Live as part of Ronboy’s Rockin’ Disco charity show on Dec. 4 at Zebulon.

■ Militarie Gun, “God Owes Me Money” — Friendly reminder that Militarie Gun’s new album “God Save The Gun” drops today via Loma Vista Recordings. Lead vocalist Ian Shelton says: “I’m well aware that being this vulnerable turns my personal trauma into a marketing hook for this album, but I’m fine with it, if not provoking it.” Following “Throw Me Away,” “God Owes Me Money” is a synth-heavy rock song with an intimate breakdown.

■ Suzie True, “Every Dog” — Friendly reminder that “How I Learned to Love What’s Gone,” the new album from Suzie True, is out today. The trio (Lexi McCoy, G Leonardo and Sarah Pineapple), along with producer Chris Farren, seem to have found the secret sauce that elevates ’90s pop-punk from “been there done that” to exceedingly fun.

■ Dream, Ivory, “Four on the Floor” — This summer, brothers Chris and Louie Baello — dba Dream, Ivory — released their third full-length, “When You Come Back I Have So Much to Tell You.” Now they’re back with a pair of new singles, “Pavement” and “Four on the Floor,” while announcing a big headlining tour that begins and ends in SoCal. Live Feb. 23 at the Constellation Room and March 28 at the Roxy.

■ Gal Musette, “Don’t Even Miss That Place” — The follow-up to “Broken Clock,” “Don’t Even Miss that Place” is a value-added piano ballad that, like most of the artist’s work, is imbued with a timeless quality.

■ Madison Cunningham, “Take Two” — Last week brought the release of Madison Cunningham’s new album, “Ace,” a thorough dissection of the cycle of love and heartbreak told in riveting cinematic folk-pop. For sophisticated palates and disciplined listeners. Live Jan. 28 at the Bellwether.

■ Gold Star, “Happy” — Over a dozen years that have seen the release of five full-lengths, songwriter Marlon Rabenreither’s solo project Gold Star has become a staple in the diet of L.A. Americana fans. Made with producer Travis Pavur, “Happy” is Gold Star’s first single since last year’s album “How to Shoot the Moon.” “In some ways, this song is actually about what it says it is about — happiness — but I think it’s really about the elusiveness of happiness,” Rabenreither says. “Lyrically it reminds me of the feeling of watching strangers go about their day from afar, happy and content, driven by an elusive purpose — mysterious and totally unachievable.

■ Sudan Archives, “A Bug’s Life” — Friendly reminder that “The BPM,” the new album from Sudan Archives, is out today via Stones throw.

■ Avalon, “Sydney” — Since last fall, Studio City-reared Avalon Baker (dba Avalon) has quietly released a series of devastatingly beautiful singles. Her latest, “Sydney,” is a lamentation of losing a close friend.

■ Meadow Gallery, “I Hear Fall” — Miranda Thompson and Derek See (Dean & Britta, Galaxie 500) are Meadow Gallery, a newly formed dream-pop duo. “I Hear Fall” is an easygoing psychedelic track from their debut self-titled EP.

■ IAMEVE, “Desire” — Tiff Randol is back with a new single from her solo project IAMEVE. The brooding electro track “Desire” is from the album “Legacy,” arriving in January, a collection of songs, she says, that “wrestles with collapse, survival, and transformation — across love, family, and the wider world. ‘Desire’ is our starting point. It explores the paradox of longing — how the very thing we fear might also be the thing that completes us. It’s that part of us that wrestles between control and surrender, destruction and salvation. When we’re too afraid to face it, it can destabilize us. But when we do face it — when we hold space for it — we move closer to wholeness”

■ Phantom Pink, “I’m At The Right Place At The Right Time” — Phantom Pink, aka Brayton Walls, is a solo art-rock artist originally from Las Vegas. “I’m At The Right Place At The Right Time,” a moody dark-rock track, showcases Walls’s striking vocal timbre, with his album “Gothika,” out next year. Walls says: “The anxiety of the guitar riff inspired the song’s walled-in, castle sound. I wanted the lyrics to be mundane – dreadfully mundane.” Walls explores LA disguised as a fearsome ghoul while smoking dual cigarettes in the music video here. Live Oct. 23 at El Cid.

■ Magdalena Bay, “Paint Me a Picture” — Yes, it’s painterly, with a backbeat: “Paint Me a Picture,” which arrived today with the companion single “Human Happens,” is the latest from Magdalena Bay,

■ Auditorium, “Halloween” — Spencer Berger (aka Auditorium) says of his “Halloween”: “I wrote this song on my 18th birthday. Halloween was three weeks away, and I was on break from college, in my old childhood bedroom. Though I was enjoying college, I had been struggling with a long-standing dilemma: how to truly be myself around others. I suppose we all, on some level, wear ‘masks’ when we’re around strangers, and sometimes even those who know us well, hiding parts of who we are out of fear and shame. Now, with my birthday and Halloween right around the corner, I found myself revisiting the song after all these years. Let’s all leave our masks at home …”

■ Mirrorball, “The Story of the Ice” — The wistful, chilling “The Story of the Ice” is the latest from the L.A. duo of Alexandra Johnstone and Scott Watson, aka Mirrorball, about which they say: “Tomorrow we may leave our hometown forever, but tonight we get drunk on the hillside over city lights. Tonight, we will never grow old.” It’s the follow-up to the single “The Hour.” Live Dec. 3 at Club Tee Gee.

■ Lucas Aaron, “Stars (Na, Na, Na)” — “Stars (Na, Na, Na)” is second single from Lucas Aaron’s forthcoming album “Paradise” via Lollipop Records. Aaron says: “The song is about pushing through rough times and embracing the ups and downs that come with riding the everyday roller coaster.”

■ Cathryn Lovett, “Artifacts” — Singer-songwriter Cathryn Lovett debuted last year with a handful of bright indie-pop confessionals. This year has brought a couple of live performances, and now the single “Artifacts,” which Lovett, the daughter of Broadway star Marcus Lovett and graduate of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, describes as “about relationship fallout, and realizing you’re the main exhibit in a museum of things your ex left behind.”

■ Low Coast, “Sandy (The Next One)” — Low Coast — Jeff Caudill (Gameface), joined by Mike Fratantuno, Terence Yoshiaki, Dave Hemann and Brian Lapin — put America’s gun crisis in their crosshairs on “Sandy (The Next One),” a reimagined version of the song “Sandy,” from the 2023 album “Existing the Dream.”

■ Cannons, “All I Need” — “All I Need” is the first single from L.A. trio Cannons since their 2023 album “Heartbeat Highway.” Four albums in, the band (Michelle Joy, Ryan Clapham and Paul Davis) have more in store for 2026.

■ Billy Tibbals, “Rock ’N’ Roll Kids” — Retro-rocking English expat Billy Tibbals, who released the EP “Nightlife Stories” in the spring of 2024, returns with a double dose of swagger in the form of singles “Rock ’N’ Roll Kids” and “Playtime.” Live Saturday at Daddy Diamonds in Hollywood.

■ Child Seat, “Stress” — L.A. duo Child Seat (Josiah Mazzaschi and Madeleine Matthews) return with another rump-shaker, “Stress.”

■ Das Kope, “Moon In Daylight” — Das Kope is a Brazilian-born psych-pop solo artist. “Moon In Daylight,” the fourth single released from his upcoming album “Brutamonte” due Nov. 7, is an eccentric and dreamy psychedelic track.

■ Blooming Fire, “Waterfalls” — Rock/hip-hop fusionists Blooming Fire are the band led by siblings Sierra Madre and Ian Nagay, along with Dryden Van Cleave and Robby Coe. Co-produced by Mikal Blue and Vanessa Silberman, their debut album “Ripple Effect” arrives Nov. 21.

■ Katzù Oso, “Raspado” — Today also brought the release of “La Conexión,” the new album from East L.A.’s Katzù Oso, a genre-hopping affair with lyrics that switch between Spanish and English. Live Nov. 8 at the Paramount and Feb. 5 at the Belasco (opening for Say She She).

■ Sherwyn, “Point n Shoot” — Sherwyn Nicholls (aka Sherwyn, one-half of the production duo Two Fresh) covers a lot sonic territory on his impressive new EP, “Spin City.” Plus, monster trucks. He’s touring with Amber Marks, including at date March 30 at the Fonda.

■ Paer, “Power Lines” — Indie-pop duo Paer drops “Power Lines,” a sister-single to “Red And Green,” about grief, death and transformation. The two songs are out via Anxiety Blanket Records.

■ VTB, “Rotting Gold” — Here’s the ripper of the week: Oxnard/Ventura trio VTB today released their new EP, “People Died & Things Exploded.” Please bang your heads responsibly.

■ Side Show Stereo, “Take My Time” — Side Show Stereo is the solo project of Joshua Dela Rama, an alt-rocker from Cerritos. His stand-alone single “Take My Time” is an upbeat rock tune with a lot of personality.

■ Ryan Reidy, “Impossible To Love” — Ryan Reidy drops “Impossible To Love,” following “Rainbow Mountain,” from his new LP “Fringe Body Parts,” out Nov. 7 via Money Pyre Records. Reidy says: “Lyrically, bed is a quadruple entendre.”

■ Heartwells, “Killin Me Now” — Long Beach’s melodic-punk band Heartwells (Justin Tauch, Dave Marino, Chris Stout, Sam Peterson) share “Killin Me Now,” an unrelenting punk song and the follow-up to their July EP, “Ollie.” Live Nov. 1 at Saint Rocke.

■ The Dollyrots, “You Don’t Own Me” — Our playlist-ending cover song of the week is the first-generation women’s empowerment song “You Don’t Own Me,” made a hit by Lesley Gore in 1963, written by John Madara and David White, and given a jolt of punk energy from the Dollyrots’ Kelly Ogden and Luis Cabezas.